Translator: Josh Greenfield Reviewer: Elena Malykh
What is digital art?
It’s simple.
It’s art that was made using digital means.
Basically, that would be programs, code, or other things like that,
that exist in a digital environment.
So it’s the same art, just made with different instruments.
I divide digital art into three types or methods.
This isn’t widely agreed-upon.
I think of it like this for myself, it’s just simpler for me.
First: the classic type of digital art,
that’s when it’s similar to regular art.
It’s like when someone uses a stylus and draws on an iPad, for example.
But instead of graphite, the stylus draws in code.
The second kind of digital art
makes use of errors.
Glitch-art is what happens when the data deforms and changes.
This is an example of “normal digital art,” the first kind.
It’s a concept for a sort of cyber-city drawn by hand.
This is an example of glitch-art, which uses errors,
in order to create a sort of artistic value and intrigue.
This is the third kind of digital art.
It’s called “algorithmic.”
This one makes use of algorithms.
Everything is programmed,
and you get this interesting dynamic language.
Really everything in our world is based on algorithms:
how trees grow, how rivers flow, how crystals are formed,
how we’re born and how we die.
It can all be logically described.
And with the help of digital technology you can take these logical chains
and use them like a brush or paint.
This happens to be what I do in my own work.
I take these digitally-generated substances to different objects:
people, transportation, architecture.
None of this is new and digital art has its place in our world,
but there’s been a problem with it.
Appraising it.
How do you know if it’s original?
And especially NFTs have allowed us
to develop a concept of originality for digital works
and put them at the same level as regular methods for regular art
What is an NFT? Non-Fungible Token.
Non-Fungible basically means that it can’t be changed.
NFTs exist in blockchains.
Research on this technology started around 2014,
and the first tests done used bitcoin’s blockchains.
But then the testing kind of died down,
and then the technology was used for Etherium’s blockchains.
This technology is really popular among digital artists right now.
There was a lot of commotion in the beginning of 2021,
when Beeple sold his work for 69 million dollars.
The piece he sold was actually 5,000 of his works
that he made every single day over 13 years.
This is the direction that digital art is going in,
where you make one product every day.
And he put it all together, and it sold for millions as an NFT.
The same has happened for a lot of art, also for crazy prices.
And, naturally, there was a lot of talk about it,
and other digital artists started to learn about it.
This technology has its pluses and generally fewer minuses.
Very few minuses.
First of all, it’s simplifying communication with art for everyone.
Which is to say that before, in order to buy some famous artist’s work,
You needed to travel somewhere and participate in a closed auction.
Now it’s simpler: Take your Etherium wallet
and using this wallet participate in an auction online.
But at the same time there are a lot of good, but not famous artists,
and you can buy their work for fairly cheap.
So it’s not just the art from the elite,
it’s very accessible collectables,
which you can buy and maybe sell again,
or you can keep them for yourself.
If we’re talking about NFT collections, then there are also big pluses here,
Because collections of normal classic art
are always physical collections,
and even that’s changing - time kills all.
People make these special storage chambers
- like entire cities, it seems - with temperature controls to store art.
But digital art it’s just information,
which is stored inside physical objects.
You can change them, and they’re pretty easy to store.
There’s something called an InterPlanetary File System.
It’s a system of peer-to-peer storage.
And if even a part of the servers or hard disks go offline or fail,
the information will still be secure.
So it’s also a very convenient thing in terms of storage
That’s NFTs.
Another thing great about NFT technology is transparency.
Everyone can see any transaction
that was imported into the blockchain.
And every transaction will show the owner of a given work.
So the artist will take their work and upload it to the blockchain,
and then they have a token tied to it.
The token proves that their work is original.
It’s kind of like the Mona Lisa: you can take a picture of her,
print it out and put it on the wall, but it’s just a copy.
The original will stay in the museum. It’s the same with digital art.
The work bound to the token, is the original.
But less about technology.
Let me talk about my views about NFTs as an artist.
Because for me that’s simpler and more interesting.
The thing that interested me about NFTs
was that they tied together artists, collectors and blockchain developers
in very lively communities, where everyone engages each other,
and it creates something completely new.
Artists are free from constant work from clients.
Because before digital art was basically just another tool.
They’d use it just to do more client work.
And then after work, they could experiment with new techniques.
Now, with the help of NFTs, you can do what you want
and make money off of that.
Everyone interacts and moves around inside these communities.
Artists are becoming collectors and helping their colleagues.
Collectors are putting out their own art, and developers add those to the blockchain
and this crazy technology has produced something completely new.
I even talked about NFTs today on an economics forum.
Everyone was talking about what may happen with it in the future,
like how it’ll change the world, will it be a good change or a bad one.
I think that the technology will show up in every aspect of our society.
And when we’re used to the blockchain, we could take other files to them.
For example, notarizing documents could use the blockchain to prove originality.
And from the point of view of art, I think it’ll really lead to something,
it’ll lead to a growth in communication surrounding people’s art,
because it’s more accessible.
And we’ll be able to better ourselves because of it.
Thank you.
(Applause)